Motihari: Priyanka Gandhi launched a sharp attack on Narendra Modi during a campaign rally in Govindpur, East Champaran, on Thursday, accusing the prime minister of focusing on poster sizes rather than the economic distress facing Bihar. Addressing voters during the first phase of polling, the Congress MP said: “Is the country’s prime minister so free that he is measuring the photos on our posters? He says we are insulting him.”
Priyanka said the opposition was confident of victory if the election was conducted fairly. She pointed to Rahul Gandhi’s recent claims of vote manipulation, adding: “If this election is fair, our government is sure to come.”
She sought to invoke Champaran’s historic role in India’s freedom struggle, contrasting it with what she described as soaring prices and declining governance under the NDA. “It is not the British today, it is Modi. Everything has become expensive,” she said.
Priyanka Gandhi attacked the state of infrastructure, claiming that 27 bridges had collapsed in three years, while “half the population has migrated” due to unemployment. She accused the NDA, in power for two decades in Bihar, of failing to create jobs: “Did you get employment? You have to migrate for work.”
She also alleged that Bihar’s chief minister, Nitish Kumar, had lost authority to the central government. “Your chief minister is not being heard. The government is run from Delhi,” she said, charging senior BJP leaders with focusing only on the past.
Turning to industry, Gandhi accused the Modi government of handing over public-sector enterprises to “two friends” and contracting out former government factories. “The nation’s wealth is being destroyed,” she said.
She criticised the recent transfer of Rs. 10,000 to women’s accounts, saying it was aimed at influencing voters ahead of the election. “Take the money, but vote wisely,” she told the crowd. “What has Modi done for women? Elections are coming, so he’s saying take Rs. 10,000.”
Gandhi said she understood the burden women carried and urged them to examine the government’s intentions: “Their intentions are not good. I don’t know what they will do after the elections.”
